As the rep­re­sen­ta­tive body for the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty, which has the high­est num­ber of Holo­caust sur­vivors per-capi­ta out­side Israel, we are immense­ly dis­ap­point­ed by the pro­posed Pol­ish Prop­er­ty Leg­is­la­tion which would exclude the vast major­i­ty of Holo­caust sur­vivors from ever achiev­ing the return of prop­er­ty seized dur­ing the Holo­caust or receiv­ing just com­pen­sa­tion.
We endorse the press state­ment of the WJRO, and will con­tin­ue to make rep­re­sen­ta­tions to the Aus­tralian and Pol­ish gov­ern­ments on this issue.
The WJRO state­ment can be found here.

World Jewish Restitution Organization “Profoundly Disappointed” at Proposed Polish Property Legislation that would Exclude Vast Majority of Holocaust Survivors and Their Families

Urges Government to Ensure Fair and Just Law

Octo­ber 20
Over sev­en­ty years after 90% of Pol­ish Jew­ry was killed dur­ing the Holo­caust, the Pol­ish Gov­ern­ment today pub­lished pro­posed leg­is­la­tion that would address prop­er­ty con­fis­ca­tions. The draft leg­is­la­tion as pro­posed would exclude most Holo­caust sur­vivors and their fam­i­lies.
On behalf of the World Jew­ish Resti­tu­tion Orga­ni­za­tion (WJRO), Ambas­sador Ronald S. Laud­er, Chair­man, and Gideon Tay­lor, Chair of Oper­a­tions, made the fol­low­ing state­ment after the Pol­ish Min­istry of Jus­tice released ear­li­er today the text of planned leg­is­la­tion on con­fis­cat­ed prop­er­ty:
“We are pro­found­ly dis­ap­point­ed that the Pol­ish government’s pro­pos­al excludes the vast major­i­ty of Pol­ish Holo­caust sur­vivors and their fam­i­lies. Pol­ish Holo­caust sur­vivors and their fam­i­lies were an inte­gral part of Pol­ish life for cen­turies. Their prop­er­ty is often their last tan­gi­ble con­nec­tion with the life they lived before the destruc­tion of the Holo­caust. We strong­ly urge the Pol­ish gov­ern­ment to ensure that the leg­is­la­tion, when intro­duced to the Par­lia­ment, will have eli­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ria and a claims process that are fair and just to those who suf­fered and lost so much.”
Accord­ing to the text pub­lished by the Min­istry of Jus­tice, the leg­is­la­tion would:

• Require that claimants cur­rent­ly be cit­i­zens of Poland today. In addi­tion it would require that they have been res­i­dents in Poland at the time that their prop­er­ty was nation­al­ized by the Com­mu­nist regime. These pro­vi­sions would exclude the vast major­i­ty of Holo­caust sur­vivors, and their fam­i­lies, who left Poland dur­ing the Holo­caust or in its after­math and now live out­side Poland.
• Exclude heirs, oth­er than spous­es and first line heirs (i.e. chil­dren, grand­chil­dren). This unprece­dent­ed excep­tion to exist­ing Pol­ish suc­ces­sion rules would dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly harm heirs of vic­tims of the Holo­caust. Because of the dev­as­ta­tion of the Holo­caust, non-lin­ear heirs, such as sib­lings or nieces and nephews, were often the only remain­ing heirs to Jew­ish prop­er­ties.
• Bar claims by for­eign cit­i­zens if they were eli­gi­ble for com­pen­sa­tion under post­war bilat­er­al treaties between their coun­try and Poland – even if they did not file claims. Most sur­vivors were not eli­gi­ble to file claims under these treaties, but even those who were eli­gi­ble often did not know to file claims as they sought to rebuild their lives after the Holo­caust.
• Pre­vent peo­ple from fil­ing claims for their prop­er­ty if owned through shares in a cor­po­ra­tion.
• Estab­lish a short one-year claim peri­od after which prop­er­ty would be trans­ferred to the Pol­ish Trea­sury.
• Elim­i­nate the pos­si­bil­i­ty of return of the actu­al prop­er­ty, or of sub­sti­tute prop­er­ty and lim­it com­pen­sa­tion to 20% of the val­ue of the prop­er­ty in cash or vouch­ers, or 25% in gov­ern­ment bonds.

The pro­posed leg­is­la­tion, in Pol­ish, can be found at the Min­istry of Jus­tice web­site www.ms.gov.pl/pl/informacje/news,9903,duza-ustawa-reprywatyzacyjna.html.
Since 1993, the WJRO has urged the Gov­ern­ment of Poland to address the issue of Holo­caust- era resti­tu­tion in a com­pre­hen­sive man­ner. Rough­ly half of the Jews who per­ished in the Holo­caust were Pol­ish – approx­i­mate­ly 3 mil­lion Pol­ish Jews were killed in the Holo­caust, 90% of the Pol­ish Jew­ish pop­u­la­tion. Poland is the only major coun­try in Europe that has not passed nation­al leg­is­la­tion for the resti­tu­tion of prop­er­ty unjust­ly seized by the Nazis and/or nation­al­ized by the Com­mu­nist regime.
Press con­tact:
Jamie Schae­fer-Wil­son
pr@wjro.org.il
+1 (646) 644‑6320